Do Your Best

Be diligent to present yourself approved to God as a workman who does not need to be ashamed, accurately handling the word of truth. 2 Timothy 2:15 NASB

Be diligent – So what’s it to be? NASB tells us to “be diligent.” ESV, NRSV, NLT and NIV say, “Do your best.” KJV uses the time-honored “Study.” The Greek is spoudason, an imperative of the verb spoudazo. Classical Greek usage demonstrates that the verb is about making something important, hurrying toward something, reckoning something as noble and worthy, being zealous over something. The LXX uses the verb to translate the Hebrew bahal, “to hasten” as in terrified flight. Josephus uses the word in the sense of zealous. In fact, throughout the apostolic writings, spoudazo is used for effort exerted conscientiously and rapidly. In Jewish thought, this is the equivalent of zeal.

Interestingly, most of the contemporary translations reduce the urgency of the verb by treating it as if the requirement is only “to do your best.” According to these renditions, the standard is not some exceedingly high bar set by the prophets or by the Messiah. The standard is what you determine to be as much as you’re able to do. Once you reach that mark, it’s enough. Just do your best. Does it really matter that your best isn’t up to Torah’s requirements? Does it make a difference if your best still includes those disappointing behaviors you just can’t shake? Not at all. What matters is that you tried. Who cares if you got a C-? Effort is the real test of spirituality.

Do you suppose that our contemporary translations (the NASB is a notable exception) are really just reflections of the progressive agenda of self-affirmation clothed in Scriptural form? When did God ever say, “Oh well, you did your best”?   Do the Ten Commandments make allowances for trying? “I tried not to lie, God, but You know me. I did my best. It’s just that I couldn’t really help it with all those generational curses and stuff.” Yes, I am sure that will work just fine before the Judgment Seat.

I wonder if “I never knew you” might be translated “I’m sorry, but your best wasn’t what was expected.” What was expected was intense, fervent, passionate rush to obey. The KJV “Study” certainly isn’t correct. That’s far too cognitive. It removes the demand for action. But “do your best” is the pendulum swinging to the opposite extreme. What part of “hurry, make haste, be zealous, rush, treat with utmost seriousness” is captured in “do your best”? Perhaps we should ask Lot’s wife.

Topical Index: spoudazo, zeal, hurry, study, 2 Timothy 2:15

And now a note:

The group that is accompanying Bob Gorelik and me to Israel in May, 2015 has homework. They are to read Daniel Gruber’s book, Copernicus and the Jews. This book is an excellent introduction (and more) to paradigm shifts, translation issues, historical problems and theological assumptions that make Christianity and Judaism incompatible ways of viewing God and His people. I have some copies of this book available. If you want one, please ask me (it is $20, shipping in the USA included). There aren’t many.

Here is just one comment from Gruber:

Christianity and “the Church” have never been able to understand, explain, or appreciate the anomaly of the Jews. This is because Christianity and the Church are substitutes for Israel and the kingdom of God. They are substitutes for God’s context of salvation, redemption, and the harvest of the earth. Much of Christianity has created a “Christ” who is not Jewish, and is not the Messiah. . . . God did not create Christianity. He did not create “the Church.” Neither is even mentioned in the Bible. They will never be adequate for containing or explaining what God is doing in the earth. They will never be adequate for containing or explaining the one little anomaly that fills the pages of the Scriptures. God created Israel; and He created Israel with a view to re-establishing His kingdom upon the earth. This will not change, no matter what theological twists and turns men may take. . . There is no Kingdom of God without Israel. That is why so much of Christianity has rejected the Kingdom of God.[1]

[1]Daniel Gruber, Copernicus and the Jews, p. 326.